Suffolk Records Society – förlag

Published by Boydell & Brewer Inc.

The fifth volume of John Constable's Correspondence expands the scope of the series by focusing on letters that highlight a series of friendships and relationships that illuminate various aspects of Constable's life. Taken together, the volume reads much like a social map of the artist's world and reveals his role as a friend, father, intellectual, mentor, and participant within a broad network of artists and literary figures who shaped his life and career. The volume includes correspondence with Constable's children, while a major section is devoted to Charles Boner, initially employed as tutor to Constable's sons, but later a trusted advisor and family confidant. These documents provide a unique insight into the intellectual, social, and familial networks that shaped Constable's work and worldview. Edited with an introduction and notes by R.B. Beckett.

The life and work of a provincial merchant, his organisation of his business affairs, and his role in civic life.When Henry Tooley drew up his will shortly before his death in 1551 he ensured the survival of two monuments to his career as a merchant in Ipswich: the almshouses which still stand in the town, and an account book which the Corporation originally acquired to administer his bequest and now hold in their archives. From this rare and valuable record, augmented by a few family and business letters and a thorough search of local and national archives the author has written a brief but impressive biography. A major consideration throughout this biography has been to place the subject in the social and economic framework of his time. This aim is followed most effectively, not only in thechapters on overseas and internal trade but also in the account of his participation in town government. Great Tooley is thus more than a simple biography; it presents, with meticulous scholarship, an illuminating pictureof wider problems and developments in the early Tudor period. the Suffolk Records Society is to be congratulated on publishing this volume. BRIAN DIETZ, ARCHIVES

A register of titles to property in the borough.The recognizance rolls of Ipswich are a register of titles to property in the borough and are among the most varied and interesting of the courts records. They begin in the late thirteenth century and extend, in a series of filesand leger-books, through to the Victorian age. Their texts comprise abstracts and copies of private deeds, testaments proved in the borough court, and grants of common soil. The careful description of properties, including ownership of neighbouring tenements, and the naming of parishes, streets, and landmarks, makes them a source of great historical and topographical interest. The early part of the series is well preserved, and its continuity allows us tofollow the fortunes of individuals and of families in some detail. We can observe in these gifts, bequests, and exchanges the recruitment of the burghal community and the affiliations of its members. It also offers a varied picture of the borough court at work, both as a tribunal and as an administrative office. The contents of the first twenty-one rolls are presented in an English paraphrase that takes account of all significant variations in the originalLatin, and also indicates the clerk's marginal notes and memoranda.